Monday, October 15, 2012

Swisher just may be the worst hitter (with a minimum of 100 PA) in post-season history. Therefore, what he’s doing now is what he always does in October: Choke.

And, that leaves Cano. How a guy can hit six-fifteen in his last 9 games of the season, and then set a major league post-season record for going hitless in 26 straight at-bats, the next minute is beyond reason. Unless, of course, Cano is the new A-Rod for the Yankees. And, then, naturally, it makes sense.

For Yankees fans, the good news is that Swisher should soon be gone and Granderson will not be far behind him. And, for all we know, Cano may leave New York once he becomes a Free Agent. But, Brian Cashman is the G.M. who brought in Swisher and Granderson. So, as long as he’s still in charge, their replacements may be more of the same. And, A-Rod’s not going anywhere, most likely, because of his contract. (Unless, like he did in Texas, Rodriguez brokers his own deal out of town.)

Then again, maybe the Yankees will turn this all around this post-season and make all this lamenting seem silly? Just don’t bet the house on it. Because, if that happens, then that will be truly shocking.

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For Yankees fans, the good news is that Swisher should soon be gone and Granderson will not be far behind him. And, for all we know, Cano may leave New York once he becomes a Free Agent. But, Brian Cashman is the G.M. who brought in Swisher and Granderson. So, as long as he’s still in charge, their replacements may be more of the same

Cano is a fascinating guy to me. High strikeout/slugger types like Swisher, Granderson and A-Rod I expect to be highly streaky. Cano is incredibly streaky despite being the type of hitter that intuitively I would expect NOT to be streaky.

To some degree all hitters are streaky of course. Maybe it would be more accurate to say I expect Cano to be less streaky than most but instead he seems to be more streaky.

But, Brian Cashman is the G.M. who brought in Swisher and Granderson. So, as long as he’s still in charge, their replacements may be more of the same.

I know, right? And he's helpfully provided a list of players who are certain to produce in the postseason.

See, they need more guys like Tino Martinez and Scott Brosius. Those are guys who always came through in October. A guy like A-Rod came through big-time in a couple of postseason series, and had a couple of super-clutch home runs, but those were exceptions -- the real A-Rod crumbled in the postseason, while Tino and Brosius performed in October year-in and year-out.

Listen, it's frustrating as hell to watch this. There's no enjoyment to be had. Even the great pitching performances can't be appreciated, because right now it feels like even giving up one run is enough to cost them the game.

They're performing as what I have to imagine is a historically bad level right now offensively. It's inexplicable -- you might "expect" these guys to go into prolonged slumps, but the inability for anyone to even put the ball in play is baffling.

They have the talent to break out and blow out a team, so I suppose it's possible that they could wake up after being down 3-0 in the series and pull a 2004 Red Sox miracle -- really, all they'd need to do is hit to their ordinary offensive levels and keep pitching the same -- but I fully expect this series to be over Wednesday.

I am so disgusted by this Yankee team that I want the series to be over in four.

Then I want maximum turnover of position players. Unfortunately, they're stuck with ARod and Teixeira. But, make the qual offer to Swisher to get the picks, then let him walk. Trade Granderson for whatever you can get. Put Gardner in CF. I'd actually keep Ichiro (he's fun), but you need to bring in two other OFs. Dump Martin too.

be careful about those offers. doug melvin thought he was going to be fine and then frankie r accepted and the crew was stuck with a guy who helped send the bullpen into the ditch for most of the season

Then I want maximum turnover of position players. Unfortunately, they're stuck with ARod and Teixeira. But, make the qual offer to Swisher to get the picks, then let him walk. Trade Granderson for whatever you can get. Put Gardner in CF. I'd actually keep Ichiro (he's fun), but you need to bring in two other OFs. Dump Martin too.

With that kind of turnover you could definitely afford a quality DH like Ryan Howard. Make it happen! Trade us Carlos Monasterios again and we'll call it even.

Listen, it's frustrating as hell to watch this. There's no enjoyment to be had. Even the great pitching performances can't be appreciated, because right now it feels like even giving up one run is enough to cost them the game.

If the Yankees flop out of the playoffs it'd be a great and rare opportunity for Cashman to go computer GM on the team. Lots of 9 for 5 deals, maximize the number of transactions, churn through everyone. Trade A-Rod for Crawford then Crawford for Howard then Howard for A-Rod then trade A-Rod again in a 3-way that nets you Lackey and Vernon Wells. Make sure you add an A-ball live arm in each trade, then trade all of them for someone useful. Repeat. I want a deal a day from the end of the World Series until St. Swithin's Day. The Crazy Cashman of a couple of years ago would have done it.

be careful about those offers. doug melvin thought he was going to be fine and then frankie r accepted and the crew was stuck with a guy who helped send the bullpen into the ditch for most of the season

It's a risk, but I think the risk is small. With people out there saying their team should offer Swisher 7/100, I doubt he takes a 1/13. The Yankees need the picks.

If the Yankees flop out of the playoffs it'd be a great and rare opportunity for Cashman to go computer GM on the team. Lots of 9 for 5 deals, maximize the number of transactions, churn through everyone. Trade A-Rod for Crawford then Crawford for Howard then Howard for A-Rod then trade A-Rod again in a 3-way that nets you Lackey and Vernon Wells. Make sure you add an A-ball live arm in each trade, then trade all of them for someone useful. Repeat. I want a deal a day from the end of the World Series until St. Swithin's Day. The Crazy Cashman of a couple of years ago would have done it.

I think that would be tremendous. At this point, I'd accept a worse team, if it was just different.

One caveat, I'd keep the pitching basically the same. Resign Pettitte and Kuroda to 1-year deals (even if you overpay a little), subtract Soriano, add Rivera, and I think it's a very good staff.

The position player side is a disaster. The only three guys I'm happy with for 2013 are Gardner, Jeter and Cano.

Ladies and gentlemen, may I present to you the only man in the world who has never been upset by his team's poor performance.

Oh please, you guys are whining and deserve to be mocked. These Yankees that you hate won 95 games and just had a couple excellent and wildly entertaining wins in the playoffs. You'll remember the Raul Ibanez game for the rest of your life.

These Yankees that you hate won 95 games and just had a couple excellent and wildly entertaining wins in the playoffs.

I'm not on the hate train that Larry and some others are on. While this isn't my favorite Yankee team of recent years, I like it miles more than the 2005-2007 teams. Jaret Wright? Carl Pavano? Sheffield? Abreu? Lots of people to dislike on that team. No one on this team really aggravates me. The offense as a whole does, sure, with its inability to hit with runners on all season and especially in the post-season.

Oh please, you guys are whining and deserve to be mocked. These Yankees that you hate won 95 games and just had a couple excellent and wildly entertaining wins in the playoffs. You'll remember the Raul Ibanez game for the rest of your life.

The issue is, I don't enjoy watching this team. They're just maddening. It reminds of the 2004 team, though fewer hatable players. I'm actually lucky in that 2004 didn't bother me that much, b/c I despised that Yankee from the moment they acquires Sheffield (instead of Vlad), Vazquez, and Brown.

The issue is, I don't enjoy watching this team. They're just maddening.

Ok ... this is why you deserve to be mocked. Your team won 95 games, it is chock full of future Hall of Famers, and in Ibanez it's had one of the most miraculous continuing clutch performances in baseball history. They're one of four teams still alive. Turn the ####### television off or stop complaining.

Ok ... this is why you deserve to be mocked. Your team won 95 games, it is chock full of future Hall of Famers, and in Ibanez it's had one of the most miraculous continuing clutch performances in baseball history. They're one of four teams still alive. Turn the ####### television off or stop complaining.

I did turn the TV off. I haven't seen any of Ibanez's heroics live. That's one of the reasons I hate this team; they've been so unwatchable that I missed some epic moments.

Cano is a fascinating guy to me. High strikeout/slugger types like Swisher, Granderson and A-Rod I expect to be highly streaky. Cano is incredibly streaky despite being the type of hitter that intuitively I would expect NOT to be streaky.

To some degree all hitters are streaky of course. Maybe it would be more accurate to say I expect Cano to be less streaky than most but instead he seems to be more streaky.

Is Cano perceived as a "choker" by Yankee fans. Looking at his past post-season performance, he has had some greats series (and years, including last year in the playoffs), some mediocre series and some and ones. He is going through an awful patch right now, but he seems to have stepped up in the past. Is all the dislike based on this year, or is there a history of this?

He's basically on a choker sine wave. This year, because he did not hit well with RISP during the regular season and has been so poor in the postseason he's a choker. In 2010-2011 he was not a choker. I believe the perception prior to that, fueled by worse hitting with runners on base, is that he was a choker.

He's basically on a choker sine wave. This year, because he did not hit well with RISP during the regular season and has been so poor in the postseason he's a choker. In 2010-2011 he was not a choker. I believe the perception prior to that, fueled by worse hitting with runners on base, is that he was a choker.

Thanks. That somewhat makes sense, though it seems unfair.

Using OPS alone, he was okay in 2005 (754), then bad in 2006 (267), then great (1175) in 2007.

In 2009, he was bad in the ALDS (333) and the WS (267) but was pretty good in the ALCS (892).

As you note, he was great again in 2010 (1288) and 2011 (1057), but is now been awful in the 2012 ALDS (312) and ALSC (000).

So it looks like a pretty good player who has streaks of bad, streaks of okay and streaks of great (loosely defining each series as streak). Does not make sense to call him a choker when he has on a number of occasions done very well. Then again, who said fans make sense.

As much as it pains me to say this, the Yankees are getting screwed by the strike zone. It is impossible to hit a pitch to the low and outside corner that is outside the strike zone. When the umpires are calling games like this you can only get a hit if the pitcher makes a mistake.

As much as it pains me to say this, the Yankees are getting screwed by the strike zone. It is impossible to hit a pitch to the low and outside corner that is outside the strike zone. When the umpires are calling games like this you can only get a hit if the pitcher makes a mistake.

Interesting, because I thought Kuroda was getting that pitch quite a bit last night. There were some that the Sanchez got that were questionable, but I thought the strike zone was reasonably consistent for both teams.

One of the other threads noted that the TBS strike zone diagram is narrower than others. If you look at other places, many of those pitches become truly boarderline, as opposed to clearly low and away.

The MLB Network guys made a point of saying that the Yankees aren't getting the calls on pitches that they normally do, while the Tigers are getting the outside pitch, not just the low and outside pitch, to lefties.

I'd probably be going a bit batty if I were a Yankees fan, because everyone who isn't a pitcher has looked pretty hapless this postseason. The team isn't getting blown out in their losses, which probably makes the defeats even more aggravating. Watching the parade of strikeouts when a string of base hits could tie up the game or give the Yankees the lead is akin to the old death by a thousand cuts.

Still, maybe it would benefit the fanbase's long-term mental well being if the team was kind of crappy or mediocre for a couple of seasons. Even before this last week, it seemed like this incarnation of the Bronx Bombers wasn't particularly well liked. And that says something of expectations that a team that wins 95 games in what's traditionally been the toughest division in baseball can still not be fully embraced. I know there's a different set of expectations for the A's and the O's of the baseball world, but being plus 90 in the win column for those teams has their respective fans shaking with excitement.

What we're seeing here with the pitchfork-wielding columnists and the fans who don't make noise unless it's to lustily boo their own team is the culmination of a 15-year desensitization where making the playoffs is supposed to be a given and anything short of a world championship is considered a complete and utter failure. Obviously it's the objective of most teams to win a title, and with the amount of resources and talents at the Yankees' disposal, such a goal isn't unreasonable. But we've hit a point where a lot of the team's fans want to stone the entire roster in the middle of the village square when the team fails to advance far enough in the playoffs.

Winning a title, even with future Hall of Famers filling out your roster, is ####### hard. A lot of the Bronx fans seem like they need something jarring to remind them of this, because right now, they're carrying a nauseating sense of entitlement.

It's not as bad as the Braves, but the Yankees are at a point where they really aren't getting postseason bang for the buck commensurate with their regular season success. From Bud's perspective, that's a feature, not a bug, of the never-ending tournament but I'd bet anything that was all premised on Yankee fan interest remaining high even in the face of postseason "failure." With the obvious malaise that's hit the fanbase and the city this postseason, you wonder whether a rethink will be in order.

But, if you're a lifelong Yankee fan, who remembers the experience of the old park, I can't see how you wouldn't hate it.

Eh, I was at plenty of games at old YS where it was depressing and lifeless. And I've been to a few at new YS that have been raucous and noisy.
I think the current (i.e., this year) lifeless atmosphere has more to do with the on-field product. They won 95 games, but something about this incarnation doesn't seem to get the fans and excited as previous ones.

on the same field where Gehrig, DiMaggio, Mantle and Berra played

The entire field was replaced to a depth of 20 or so feet in the 90s, so unless you're saying it's something mystical about the bedrock under that bit of land in the Bronx...